Sailors Reach Prized Port Of Call -- Home

April 17, 1986|By Jay Hamburg of The Sentinel Staff

JACKSONVILLE — Boat horns blared. Throngs on shore cheered. And sailors, anxious to be home after eight months at sea, waved from the railing as the vessel dubbed ''Super Sara'' steamed into Mayport Wednesday.

About 7,000 friends and relatives greeted the USS Saratoga, the aircraft carrier that won fame when its jets intercepted an Egyptian airliner carrying hijackers of the Achille Lauro in October and destroyed Libyan radar installations March 24.

As the Saratoga and its 4,600 crew members approached port Wednesday morning, sailors on the bridge peered through binoculars, trying to get a glimpse of the crowd waiting with banners, balloons and flags 3 miles away.

Leaning into the wind, Gary of New York held on to his hat and shouted to his friend Eli of Pennsylvania, ''Yeah, I'm going home.''

Navy officials, concerned about possible retaliation, asked reporters to withhold full identification of nearly all of the men on board. That precaution, however, did not dampen spirits aboard the ship, which sported a banner proclaiming the crew ''terrorist busters.''

''Are we happy to be going home?'' Gary asked. ''Yeah, I can smell the cocoa butter from here.''

The Saratoga's commanding officer, Capt. Jerry Unruh, congratulated his men during a brief ceremony several miles offshore that featured Jacksonville dignitaries flown in by helicopter.

When visitors flew back to land, Unruh addressed his men in more personal tones.

''Well, gents,'' he said, ''if you didn't feel like heroes before, you should now.'' Then he added a phrase that his crew had come to regard as his highest compliment: ''Mighty fine!''

When the cheering died down, Unruh heightened the ever-growing mood of homecoming as he sent his sailors to man the rail.

''We're going to put this ship into port,'' he said. ''Enjoy yourselves.'' A sailor from Casselberry was already making energetic, if still somewhat vague, plans to do just that. They involved an unspecified number of girlfriends and the beach.

''I going to get in my pickup and head to Cocoa,'' said Don, who attended Edgewater High School. ''I've got a few places I can stop. I'm not picky.''

He said the tensest moments during the Libyan operation last month were also the highlight of his voyage.

''That was the fun part. All that adrenaline pumping. We had missiles tuned up and ready to go.''

Deano, a crewman from Sanford, said he was just looking forward to seeing his wife and children. ''Relax, be with the family.''

As the Saratoga slowed in the port channel, it picked up a fireboat escort that heralded the arrival with plumes of water spurting from its hoses.

Sailors talked of letters from their wives, their first dinner at home and how to find their wives in the crowd. One crewman said, ''I told my wife to wear a certain color dress -- fluorescent orange.''

When the vessel floated within a few yards of docking, the bomb elevator on deck opened and let loose a barrage of yellow balloons. That was answered on shore by a burst of red, white and blue ones. The crowd chanted, ''Sara! Sara! Sara!''